Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Speed Trip

I was bored. And, to cure my boredom, what I did was to ride my brother’s bike to the unfinished high way in Taytay, Rizal. (The highway is called “High Way 2000” and its now 2007 and the high way is still not finished. The projected accomplishment date of the project was the year 2000, that’s why they call it “High Way 2000.” But it’s almost 2008; I think they better change the name of the highway from “High Way 2000” to “High Way 2000 years to Build.” It tells so much of the efficiency of the inefficiency of the government’s infrastructure building…hmmm….whatever.)

Anyway, (the parenthesis made me lose what I’m thinking about) I rode the bike and had fun. I full throttled the 125 cc bike and watched as the speedometer climbed to over 100 Kmh. (It may not be fast enough for some, but in the Philippines where the average speed of vehicles in city traffic is 5 meters per hour, 100 Kmh is supersonic.) I had this sense of freedom, like I’m flying.

I could feel the bike’s motor vibrating as it reached its maximum revolution, but I quickly reduced speed because I can already feel that the front wheels were wiggling. This is the problem with small bikes; other riders say that to avoid the front wheels from wiggling, the rider can lean on the front wheel to put some weight and stability in there. I tried it, but it felt awkward. A short burst of speed is enough for me, I am not planning to break any speed record; I’m just having fun.

Riding bikes reminds me of my late father and my uncle and the senior resident pastor of our church going to the eastern towns of Rizal Province preaching the gospel. Me and my siblings backriding and…it’s an early training in evangelism…that I missed (actually what I missed are the meriendas!).